My Continuing Obsession With Peruvian Food

When I moved to San Francisco, I was bombarded with more food cultures than I ever expected. I quickly discovered that my new favorite ethnic food was Peruvian. It basically specializes in ceviche, flavored meat and a delicious drink called pisco sour.

I recently went to two different Limon Rotisserie locations in the city. There's one in Mission on Valencia and another on South Van Ness. They also have a new location on Third Street. I went to the two Mission locations and everyone told me they have different menus. I'm sorry to inform all my SF friends, but they offer the exact same menu at both. I've checked them side by side. Now, this is not a bad thing because the menu is wonderful. I just wanted to clear things up.

The first thing to do when you sit down is order yourself a Pisco Sour. For background on Pisco, check out my review on La Mar. Pretty much anything Pisco drink under the Limon Sours section is good. If you want to mix up the classic, try the Inca Blu Sour or Melocoton Sour (peach).

They have six different ceviche options. I've had the taratare de tuna (just ahi with strong sesame taste) and the more traditional ceviche mixto (fish, calamari, tiger shirmp with lemon, onion and corn). Last time we got one of their two salads, the ensalada rusa, which is local root vegetables, choclo (large corn grown in the Andes), peas and green beans tossed in a zesty creamy mustard dressing. Limon is known for their rotisserie chicken, which slow roasted over an open fire. No matter what size of chicken you order, you get two sides, so we got the sweet potato fries and vegetales salteados (sauteed green beans, onion, etc). I usually prefer the standard salty regular fry over sweet potato, but these had just the right amount of salt on them and were the perfect crisp (sweet potato fries can be too smushy sometimes). One of the dishes that I tried at both places is the lomito saltado, which is one of my favorite Peruvian dishes. It's basically stir-fried strips of steak, tomato and onion in soy sauce, layered on top a plate of fries. Meat, onions and fries, what is there to not like about this dish?? We also tried the carne and pollo empanadas. I'm not a huge empanadas fan, but these were decent. The meat inside was well flavored, I just think the dough was a little thick. The first time I went, I also tried the traditional chicharron de pollo, which is thin crispy pieces of chicken marinated in soy, garlic and aji amarillo (a sauce made from hot yellow chili pepper). Overall, Limon is a good place to go with a small group and try a bunch of different dishes. The pricing isn't too bad and definitely worth it. I would even go there just to hang out in the bar area enjoying pisco sours.